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tv   Politics Nation  MSNBC  September 27, 2012 3:00pm-4:00pm PDT

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candidate. the question is, just who is this guy? who wants to lead our nation. mother jones magazine obtained the video. it shows romney back in 1985 describing ou bain capital viewed the companies it was supposedly helping. >> bain capital is an investment partnership which was formed to invest in, startup companies and ongoing companies than to take an active hand in managing them and hopefully five to eight years to harvest them at a significant profit. >> harvest these companies for a profit. that was romney's goal in business. to harvest companies the way you harvest organs, the way you harvest crops. take out everything good and leave the stalks behind. but we now know this is mitt romney's world view. the world view we only see behind closed doors when he
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thinks we're not listening. it's what we saw on that secret video where romney said, 47% of americans saw themselves as victims. today the obama campaign released a devastating new ad that simply let's romney speak for himself while showing the faces of the 47%. >> there are 47% of the people that will vote for the president no matter what, who believe that they are victims, who believe that government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe they are entitled. they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives. >> seniors, veterans, the working poor, that's the half of america that romney is writing off. it's offensive. it's an offensive world view and on the campaign trail in virginia, president obama seemed offended by it. >> i don't think we can get very far with leaders who write off
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half the nation as a bunch of victims, who never take responsibility for their own lives. i know. i travel around a lot in virginia and across this country. i don't meet a lot of victims. i see hardworking virginians, i see students trying to work their way through college. i see single moms like my mom putting in overtime to raise their kids right. i see senior citizens saving for retirement your entire lives. like jim whip said, i see a whole bunch of veterans who have served this country with bravery and distinction and soldiers who defend our freedom every single day and i see those military families who are wondering whether their loved ones are going to come back home safe and sound. that's who i see.
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>> that's who you see. a vision of an america united by values, not divided by wealth. it's a passionate message and polls show it's resonating with the american people. just take a look at this. it's remarkable. here's how the race looked before romney's 47% comment became public. some ups and downs but overall a pretty steady race. here's the race since the 47% video surfaced last monday. it's clear, it's a clear shift toward the president as americans learn more and more about romney, who romney is and how he views so many americans. two candidates, two visions in this election. we're all in this together or you're on your own. bill job build jobs from the bottom up or harvest jobs.
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joining me from mother jones, he broke the news about this harvest video a week after the 47% video itself. and michelle carter, washington correspondent for the newsweek daily beast. thank you both for joining me. >> thanks, rev. >> now, david, the romney campaign has responded to this harvest video. they said, quote, in addition to starting new businesses, mitt romney helped build bain capital by turning around broken companies, creating and saving thousands of jobs. the problem today is that president obama hasn't been able to turn around our economy in the same way. end of that quote. but still that word harvest just sticks out, doesn't it? >> it does. and i have to say this tape wasn't surprising. it's interesting in some ways because it's not surprising.
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this is how private equity people talk. they look at companies not in the long run, you know, how to build something the way steve jobs built apple and how it can be part of a community and go on and on and create jobs and survive and thrive. they look at companies as sort of profit opportunities. we look for companies with hidden or potential value. we go in there, take a stake, try to manage them, and then harvest them for significant profits. now, as president obama has said, in some ways there's nothing wrong with that. newt gingrich called it vulture capital lic capitalism. it's looking at a way of creating jobs, being a stake holder in the community and thinking about the long run. that's not what you're look at. mitt romney was just talking the jargon of someone who does private equity and it's just not -- at the same time, though, in the last year he's told us that he can create jobs and knows the economy better because
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of his bain cap pal experience. >> but michelle, let me ask you, harvest companies -- buy companies and harvest them, where can you even find the most generous stretch you can, find job creation? >> it is unfortunate imagery and it's a rarafied field and this is the downside to the way romney has made his entire campaign, kind of a referendum on obama' private sector experience, he talks up a good game, you know, kind of inflating what any president would be able to do on the job creation front. so, you know, you run across something like this and of course people are going to jump on it because romney himself has made job creation and his
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ability to do that central to his entire candidacy. >> but, david, let's be fair. he does care. he, romney, has some compassion in an interview with nbc, he showed how he cared by promoting romney care. look at this. >> don't forget, i got everybody in my state assured 100% of the kids in our state has health insurance. i don't think there's anything that shows more empathy and care than the people of this country than this kind of record. >> david, can you believe it, he is showing his concern for people by bragging about romney care, which is the basis of obama care, than he has been attacking and saying that he would turn around, revoke right away. i mean, every time i think i've heard it all, i hear some more. >> the fact that he is finally embracing romney care shows how desperate he is. i mean, actually, it should have
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been a centerpiece of his campaign from the beginning. i know people whose lives have been changed and almost saved thanks to romney care. it's a marvelous program that's really worked quite well there yet he hasn't been able to talk about it because he wanted to run it as the severely conservative candidate and the base hates romney care. the fact that he's talking about it, to show that he really does care about people, tells you that he has to sort of, once again, reboot his campaign for the 74th time. but now i think given what he said on the 47% take, the terminology that he uses on the harvesting tape, he really is battling uphill, talking about romney care from the beginning, he would have had a harder time in the republican primaries but people would have believed that this was a guy who might indeed care about helping others have a better life. >> but michelle, isn't that the point, if he had ran on romney care, he would not have probably won the nomination. >> absolutely not. >> and does that not only say, michelle, that he he will do and
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adjust to whatever it takes to win, how do you then convince voters to trust you if you build this image that you are just and change just to win? >> well, that's what he got hit for a great deal during the primaries by his conservative competitors and then being we saw the etch-a-sketch comments, basically what he should have done, the minute the primaries were over, he should have embraced it then and had a lot more time to try and work his way back to kind of being a moderate centerist guy but he didn't probably because he was well aware of people accusing him of flip-flopping but now he's in a sticky position where he's got to do something to reach out to independents and moderates and yet he has spent so much time doing this hard line, he's kind of trapped by his own ideological
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flip-floppery. >> david, they use the 47% that you and mother jones first surfaced and it's caused a lot of republicans to even start doing a political moonwalk away from romney. gop nevada governor says about romney's 47% comment, quote, i don't agree with it. there's a lot of folks that i'm working extremely hard to get them unemployment and until they are employed, there are many services that are going to be needed. this is senator sandoval, a republican. people are understanding even in his own party how devastating this 47% tape you surfaced is and the president has it on an ad. >> people who conduct focus
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groups tell me that independent voters learned very quickly on their own about the 47% remark and focus groups said they brought it up on their own without being prompted and many have said that's reason enough for them to no longer consider voting for mitt romney and even some republicans in the margin have had similar reactions. looking at what the romney campaign has done the last few days and that ad they put out yesterday or the day before in which romney says, you know, the president is a good guy that cares about the poor and middle class, just like i do, i just have better policies t. shows you that they have the exact same research. you know, you don't with a month out or a little more than a month out drastically change your strategy and your approach and run ads praising the other guy unless you see tremendously negative disappointing data. and so it's just -- you know, the video speaks for itself. >> i'm going to have to leave it there. the video does speak for itself.
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david corn, michelle cottle, thank you for your time tonight. >> thank you. >> congratulations, again, mr. corn, on the tape. coming up, on the trail, the president keeps hammering away. plus -- >> you always hear a lot about patriotism. well, you know what? it's time for a new economic patriotism. an economic patriotism rooted in the belief that growing our economy begins with a strong and thriving middle class. plus, from birthers to not understanding america, the smears have been rejected but they have a new plan of attack. it's not subtle and it's ugly. and mitt romney doesn't want george w. bush anywhere near him. but going to the cayman islands to talk investments wasn't what he had in mind.
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the story of the day coming up. all that, plus samuel l. jackson is reaching out to voters with an ad you'll want to see. this is "politicsnation" on msnbc. >> mitt romney a week ago they were ready to count the guy out and now he's bounced back and he's on a bus tour in ohio. he's been working very hard kissing babies and freeloaders. babies and freeloaders.
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facebook yet? the "politicsnation" conversation is going all day long. and today our fans had a lot to say about the romney harvesting comment. kalar says, he's never been a job creator. he's a profit harvester.
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our facebook family was happy about the voting in eye yeah. anthony says, go iowa. let's get this election going. we have a lot more on that first swing state to vote a little later in the program. we want to hear what you think, too. head over to facebook and search poins and like us "politicsnati and like us to keep the conversation going long after the show ends. it's always good to have a backup plan, in case i get hit by a meteor. wow, your hair looks great. didn't realize they did photoshop here. hey, good call on those mugs. can't let 'em see what you're drinking. you know, i'm glad we're both running a nice, clean race. no need to get nasty. here's your "honk if you had an affair with taylor" yard sign. looks good. [ male announcer ] fedex office. now save 50% on banners. look! she wears the scarlet markings! [ man ] out!
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be just perfect at. he has the perfect resume and all of the right credentials. how about mitt romney accountant in chief. why? because he knows how to find every single loophole and exploit every tax break in the books. and i think he should include this in his job application. a new report shows mitt romney avoided paying big taxes on a trust fund he set up on his children's inheritance. he did it in a trust fund called, i dilg it. i'm serious. that's what it's called. i dig it. now, you may not dig it but governor romney certainly did. saving hundreds and thousands of taxes according to bloomberg. that's the same kind of creative accounting that allowed him to get a 14.1% tax rate. and now his running mate says, it just doesn't benefit america.
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>> this money creates jobs so you'll want to have more capital that goes to more businesses, especially small businesses like this one so more people and what we learned about mitt romney and his tax returns, he's a successful businessman. that's a good thing. >> ah, patriotism. this money creates jobs. prove it. show me one job, just one, that was created by romney paying less in taxes. the truth is, governor, governor romney's tax policies are bad for america. they are geared to the super rich. they help him and his wealthy friends. and they hurt the middle class. joining me is steve and joan walsh editor of salon.com and an msnbc political analyst and author of the new book, "what's the matter with white people,
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why we long for golden age that never was." first, let me thank you both for being here tonight. steve, is romney running for the wrong job? should he be the accountant in chief? >> the thing with this is, any politician who has to start answering questions over the height of their campaign about taxes, that's going to be a problem. it meshes so perfectly with what democrats and president obama have been trying to say about the republican party in the republican party's priorities. the idea is the protector of this sort of privileged pampered super elite that's been immune to the great recession that's enjoyed preferential tax treatment, things like this, romney, when you start talking about a guy who pays such a low effective tax rate, he looks like the kind of person that republicans are trying to protect and the proof is in the pudding because there was a poll that jumped out at me. they asked voters, do you think
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the candidate romney -- candidate obama understand and care about your problems? for obama the number is near 60%. for romney it's under 40. i think there's the image that he conveys is makes it very difficult for people to relate to him. >> now, joan, the president's ad on romney's taxes, ever since he released his tax returns, the obama campaign has been highlighting how unfair our tax policies are. watch this. >> it's crazy that mitt romney wants to get into office and lower taxes than the average american. >> i mean, these kinds of ads showing the kind of gap between what average americans pay on a percentage basis than romney
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than a continual revolution of loopholes. these things, i'm sure, are a part of why we're seeing him sink in the polls. >> if we can go back to i dig it, that program allows him to set up a trust for his children and his family and at a time when middle class families are worried and telling pollsters that they don't believe their children are going to do better than they did, these are the strategy that he uses to make sure his children are multimillionaires without lifting a finger when their children cannot get jobs. so in every way it plays to what steve referred to before, is this kind of empathy gap where people really don't believe that mitt romney can understand them, that he wants to help them because he doesn't think that he knows them. >> steve, on top of that, the economic policy institute has come out with a study of romney's budget and they have actually concluded that his
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judge jet kills jobs. a new study shows that romney's budget would cause a net loss of 554,000 jobs by 2014. >> yeah. well, if fully implemented and now you have one of his advisers that have gotten into a thing where he's put it out there, if the numbers don't quite add up, we're not going to see the kind of tax reductions that we were talking about, maybe it's a little flexible. now the campaign is saying it's that's not really the case. we've known that the numbers don't add up. if you try to make them add up, there are disastrous consequences. romney is saying, if you elect me, you're going to get 12 million new jobs. well, the economy is on pace to create 12 million jobs over the next four years. there's an empty promise there as well. the interesting thing to me is when you look at some of the other polling coming out right now, there's been a real change in the number of people willing to give obama credit for where the economy is right now, where it's going. his approval rating, his overall
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approval rating is consistently over 50% now. >> and he's ahead of romney and the other thing, joan, is that the campaign of mitt romney planned on making this whole election a referendum on the president. it seems like it's a referendum on romney and more important than just romney, what he represents. see, i think this election is not just about two personalities, two candidates, but it's two colliding ideas in this country. one built on building the rich and making them more profitable and trickling down the rest of us, where they say it's coming and those that believe in a country that really is there for the average american. >> and the government -- >> that's what this is about. >> right. the government is either going to help the top 1% in the hopes that things will trickle down or government is going to build the middle class like it did in the '40, '50s, and '60s. another interesting thing happened, reverend al, a new
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study found that we can finally say for the first time that barack obama has created net jobs in this term. >> right. >> so the same day we find out that the romney plan is going to cost us jobs, we see that president obama, even though when he took office we were lose being $750,000 -- >> which they tried to put on him. >> which they tried to put on him. >> even with those horrible jobs he created a net gain. >> joan walsh, steve cornacki, thank you for your time tonight. don't miss steve on "the cycle" right here on msnbc at 3:00 p.m. ahead, they said our president wasn't born in america. they said he apologizes for america. now they have a new smear. it wreaks of desperation. and bill clinton is talking about being president again. just not here. stay with us. >> i don't get it, folks. how could romney be behind?
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we've seen a lot of former president bill clinton these last few months and sometimes it seems like he's missing his old job. it seems as he's starting to explore other options. >> i could run for president of ireland because of my irish
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heritage and because i was born in arkansas, which is part of the louisiana purchase, any person anywhere in the world that was born in a place that ever was part of the french empire, if you move -- if you live in france for six months and speak french, you can run for president there. >> ooh-la-la, another run for presidency? but wait, the french rules have changed and you need to live there for five years to gain citizenship and run for president. the rules are stricter than he thought in ireland, too. but word is out across the atlantic that president clinton might be job hunting and if clinton gets a friendly reception in france, he might have to give some hope to another politician who may be looking for a job come november and this guy already speaks the language.
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>> bon jour. [ speaking foreign language ]. >> keep on polishing up your accent, governor romney. we can practice seeing together. jack, you're a little boring. boring. boring. [ jack ] after lauren broke up with me, i went to the citi private pass page and decided to be...not boring. that's how i met marilyn...
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when he's taking their side? less expensive option than a traditional lawyer? at legalzoom you get personalized services for your family and your business that's 100% guaranteed. so go to legalzoom.com today for personalized, affordable legal protection. we've talked a lot on this show about the ugly attacks from the right and just look at all they have done to try to smear the president. they have said he wasn't born in america, that he apologizes for america, that he doesn't understand american capitalism. they've compared him to nazis, said he wihas been strongly rejeked. of course, now they have a new plan.
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they are saying president obama is a liar. yes, this is their big idea. karl rove writes, obama's biggest opponent is the true. quote, every day it seems he attempts to disqualify his owe noent through deliberate and undeniable falsehoods. he goes on to advise romney, quote, romney must call out the president. you almost can't believe this. you almost can't say this with a straight face. >> the president tends to, how shall i say it, say things that aren't true and in attacking his opponents and in that kind of case it's difficult to say, well, am i going to spend my time correcting things that aren't accurate or spend my time talking about the things i want to talk about?
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>> let me get this straight. the campaign that doesn't believe in fact checkers is talking about the truth. they can't run on the ideas, they can't run on their record. all they can do is this? joining me now is joe madison, nationally syndicated radio host and thank you both for being here tonight. >> thank you, reverend. >> joe, first he was born in kenya and now they are calling him a liar. that's what they've got? >> and coming from an individual who has said to america and whose campaign and surrogance have said, we don't care about facts. we don't care about facts. this president has been fact checked for the, what, almost last four years. i believe fact checking was
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created just for president obama. and i hope he does decide to spend his time correcting him because, quite honestly, most people know what an incumbent president has or has not done and what people want from a challenger is what are you going to do that will be better? >> well, alicia, is the strategy here that they want to have romney act as though the president lies so much and is full of falsehoods that if he does well in the debates, you really can't trust what he is saying, therefore, he's not doing well and to give romney a way of aggressively going after the president so he doesn't have to deal with specific policy things that can be taken apart by the president? >> yes and yes. he is dealing with the joe wilson school of debate, something we've seen from romney before. he tries to newt traize his own
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weaknesses by turning them against president obama. how much time it gives the obama campaign to prepare and to ji jut sue it. now obama can go into that debate ready to talk about the many lies and misspeaks of the romney campaign, whether that be the mischaracterization of obama's medication plan or obama who killed simpson/bowles. i think obama is going to be able to say, you know what, let's do not this, mitt. let's not point fingers at one another. let's rise above it and each tell the american people what we are capable of. >> let me ask you this, alicia, because we just had nbc wall street journal marist poll release new figures. president is up seven points in new hampshire, up by two points in nevada and north carolina. and in a poll released
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yesterday, up ten points in ohio, nine points in florida. up by 12 points in pennsylvania. is this why we are seeing these desperate measures now? clean across the board, every poller is saying he's up, up, up. >> he's up and it's because of the various strategies because of the romney campaign have failed to work. initially they were running against a bad barack obama who wasn't a good guy and then he became a good guy who was just a little in over his head and couldn't get the economy back on track and now they are trying to make him a dishonest guy. they have seen that there are other strategies have not worked. they've seen that even their basic economic attack on him is not enough to rise with voters so they are going to try to create confusion and division within the electorate as their only path to victory. >> now, joe, when you read the op ed piece by karl rove, he advises president to call the
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president out but he's very exact in how he ought to do it. he says, mr. romney can't call mr. obama a liar. that's too harsh a word that might backfire, that would backfire. mr. romney must instead set the record straight in a presidential tone, firm, respectful, but not differential. and a dash of humor is worth its weight in gold. >> yeah, what they are going to go for is the old reagan thing, show me -- you know, what was it, there you go again. and that's what they are going to go for except if i were president obama, i would come back and say, excuse me, you're not ronald reagan and i knew ronald reagan. i mean, you know, it's absolutely crazy. today we're going to have an nfl football game. can you imagine the opposing
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team giving the other team the playbook? i mean, he doesn't have that many plays in the book to begin with and now here your advisers are, in essence, giving the obama administration -- giving the obama debate team the play that they are going to run as if this president isn't going to be prepared to counter anything. i don't know what kind of campaign they are running and the last thing i would do is publicize my strategy in the first debate. >> i think you're right. >> the only thing i think more alarming about publishing your strategy before the debate is that they are going at what has been a weak point of mr. romney. i mean, just this week he's had to defend himself against accusation that he's been fast and loose with facts. look at this. >> we've been absolutely spot on and any time there's been anything amiss, we correct it or remove it. >> so the fact that the media
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has called him on things that seem to be full of falsehoods, the irony here is that you're going to use that as your strategy? >> i think it's the only thing that they have left that they believe they can put the obama campaign back on the defensive. i agree with joe. it's surprising that they are putting this forward and it has to be because in doing so they are now forcing the media to ask those questions. you know, to fact check president obama, to write these stories about how romney's going to call him a liar, which then sort of deluge into something that takes over. right now romney doesn't have any card to play. the last thing they can do is make americans believe that when barack obama talks about the successes of the last four years, that he is simply lying. >> well, don't say that he has any more cards because there may be more tapes on obama at the rate he's going. joe madison, alicia menendez, thank you for your time tonight.
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>> thanks, rev. ahead, he's been in hiding from the romney campaign but when they told george w. bush to go away, they probably didn't mean go toll the cayman islands for an investment conference. and hundreds and thousands voting today in iowa. it's a big day for this election. stay with us. >> this is the movement of our era. protecting that fundamental right, not just for this election but for the next generation and generations to come. ♪
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back in the u.s. economy this year. in pipes, cement, steel, jobs, energy. we need to get the wheels turning. i'm proud of that. making real things... for real. ...that make a real difference. it's a big day for this we're back on "politicsnation." have you guys ever heard of the onion? it's a newspaper that does these hysterical stories. check out some of the headlines. you did great. terrified personal assistant tells clint eastwood. and another says, romney accidently introduces his family members by their third annual incomes instead of their names. and get a load of this, george w. bush attends a key note conference in the cayman islands. you can't be serious. this is not an onion headline?
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it's not a joke? it's real? george bush with be a conference speaker in the cayman islands the week before the election, the week before the famous cayman runs for office? no. this is not an onion article but the bush/romney relationship certainly seems like one. bush as the doors as an elevator closes on him but what is not funny that romney wants to return to the same failed bush policies, the same wrong economic theories and bush will remind america about that one week before the election when he visits mr. romney's money in the caymans. joining me now, wayne slater, senior political reporter from the dallas morning news. wayne, thank you for coming on the show tonight. >> great to be with you,
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reverend. >> bush heading to the cayman, what do you think of mitt romney said when he read about this tonight? >> it doesn't sound like an onion headline, you wonder what is next, hauling your dog on the top of your car. this is something that romney and his people do not want voters to be reminded of, that he has millions of dollars through the tax havens, including the cayman islands. and here's the former president showing up, reminding voters and not only is he showing up in the cayman islands as a remind deer but he's going to be talking to exactly the same kinds of people deregulated during the bush years and who attributed us getting in this big mess at the time. this is absolutely awkward is too kind of a word five days
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before the election. >> no, you couldn't make this up. let's talk about the bush/romney relationship. arguing in an op ed today that romney should address bush, not ignore him. it says, quote, what romney has not done is address the major problem he has in making the case, the shadow of the george w. bush years. it has next to nothing to say about what bush era republicans got wrong. the result is that romney appears to be saying that everything was going swimmingly until obama came along. >> yeah, and voters don't believe that. voters think that george w. bush deserves a sizeable part of the relationship for leaving a box of rocks. i think that's exactly right. not only is it the right thing to do but politically,
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strategically it would have been a smart thing to do because romney doesn't like to talk about a lot of things, his taxes, religion, and in this case, george w. bush and the predecessor in the white house. if, in fact, romney talked and had talked more about bush, even being critical of president bush, then i think he would have plotted with much of his base. if you talk to conservative republicans, they say they are not happy with george bush and romney would have resonated with him had he talked to them. >> it's no wonder he can't answer that because his policies are just like pubush. 176 his 24 foreign advisers served under bush, top two economic advisers served under bush and rnc official saying that the romney policies are the bush plans updated. how do you answer that? >> it is. a former bush speechwriter told
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me that in fact the romney administration would be the third term of a bush presidency. and you look at it not simply on the fiscal policies and certainly what he's talked about publicly in terms of cutting taxes, deregulation, and so forth, sounds an awful lot a like that contributed to the economic woes but if you look at the foreign policy folks, there is a very strong neo-conservatism in there. i guess if you want a third term of george w. bush, reverend, i think you're right. this is the group that would bring it to you. >> now, george bush is a very, very knowledgeable politician. easy elected to the presidency governor of texas. what is he doing? he knows the inference. what is he doing here to romney?
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>> you're right. he's very smart and politically savvy. the thing is, george bush, i think, doesn't really care. you make a lot of money at these kinds of speeches and frankly there's no love lost between bush himself and romney and george bush did not simply go to the republican national convention in tampa. the romney people did not want him to go, did not want voters and in a weird way this is george bush saying, fine, you don't want me there, i'm going to show up in the caymans five days before the election. >> well, bush's revenge. thanks for your time this evening. early voting kicked off in iowa today but many are being suppressed. the fight continues, next.
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finally tonight, it's on. this was the scene as early voting got under way. hundreds and thousands showed up. lines stretched down the street before polls even opened. iowa is the first swing state to hold early voting. by the end of the weekend, 30 states will be choosing their next president already. the l.a. times reports more than 45 million americans will take advantage of early voting, a record turnout. michelle obama recently spoke about the right to vote. >> we cannot let anyone discourage us from casting our ballots. we cannot let anyone let us feel unwell in the voting boolth. it's up to us to make sure in
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every election, every voices heard and every vote is counted. that's making sure our laws preserve that right. >> nothing is stopping these people from voting. iowa doesn't have any voting i.d. law on the books. everyone can freely exercise their right to vote. as we've been reporting over the last two years, 17 states have passed restrictive voting laws that could suppress millions of americans. so we can't think that this election is in the bag. there's too much at stake. we can't sit at home and depend on others. we've got to come out. we've come too far to stop voting now. voting isn't a privilege. it's a right. a right that people suffered and
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died for we suffered too hard for this right. we are not going to let anyone take it away, no matter which way the polls go, this is not just about your candidate or mine, this is about america deciding whether it's going to be a nation for the few at the top or a nation for everyone. let history say, you showed up and recorded what side you're on. thanks for watching. i'm al sharpton. "hardball" starts right now. romney losing his bearings. let's play "hardball." good evening. i'm chris matthews in washington. let me start with this. why do we have such long campaigns for president? because it's a tryout a chance to not just kick the tires, not just to look under the hood, but to actually tahe

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